John Darnielle's Mountain Goats and Extra Lens Sign to Merge Records

Hear a song from the John Darnielle/Franklin Bruno duo's new album

The Mountain GoatsfrontmanJohn Darnielle lives in Chapel Hill Durham, North Carolina, the same town where indie megalith Merge is based. Mountain Goats drummer Jon Wurster also plays in Merge'sSuperchunk, alongside Merge founders Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance. And now two of Darnielle's projects have signed to Merge. Makes sense, don't it?

After five albums on 4AD, the Mountain Goats will release their next album on Merge. And the label has also snapped up the Extra Lens (formerly known as the Extra Glenns), Darnielle's collaboration with fellow prolifically erudite singer-songwriter Franklin Bruno.

Darnielle and Bruno's previous Extra Glenns full-length, Martial Arts Weekend, came out in 2002. Undercard, the new Extra Lens album, arrives October 19. Darnielle plays guitar and sings on the album, while Bruno handles arrangements. The duo recorded the album in Brooklyn and North Carolina with producers Brian Paulson and Mitch Rackin. Up above, you can download album track "Only Existing Footage", and we've got the tracklist below. Huge, huge bonus points for including a song called "Rockin' Rockin' Twilight of the Gods".

The Mountain Goats have a few dates coming up in late summer and fall, while the Extra Lens will tour later this year. Dates for the Mountain Goats below.

Undercard:

01 Adultery 02 Crusierweights 03 Only Existing Footage04 Communicating Doors 05 Programmed Cell Death 06 How I Left the Ministry07 Some Other Way 08 Ambivalent Landscape Z 09 In Germany Before the War10 Tug on the Line 11 Rockin' Rockin' Twilight of the Gods12 Dogs of Clinic 17